Playing Guitar With Acrylic Nails
Our nails have a wide diversity of tone.
Playing guitar with acrylic nails. Classical guitar nails are not absolutely necessary to playing guitar. You only do the nails on your picking hands that your are playing with. I play guitar on and off myself but not as of lately because Im keeping my nails a little on the long side.
You have to use glue and while acrylic nails are strong inevitably they will chip. I wouldnt advise your friends use their acrylic nails as guitar picks. The tone is much better and its very difficult to get used to using picks on your fingers.
But the sound produced will be very much different than if nails are used to pluck the guitar. Fingerpicks are options like you said but then again my fingernails follow my wherever I go fingerpicks dont. The sound is much warmer than using a pick and a bit warmer than the natural nail.
Use a larger pick than the standard one. Fingernails can create a more powerful volume and bright tone that soft flesh fingers are not able to do. So there is a historical basis for playing without nails as well.
Part of the reason picks are in decline is that more and more guitarists are moving to either playing with their natural nails or using acrylic nails. Having great nails all the time can really improve your guitar playing. Why Acrylic Nails Are So Important.
It is a well-known fact that naturally grown fingernails are not durable enough to withstand the rigors of plucking the steel strings of an acoustic guitar for hours on end. Play guitar with longnail is possible. Wont hurt your natural fingernails.